Nintendo’s newest gaming console – the Nintendo Switch – is officially on the market and on Thursday night, before the clock struck midnight, excited fans lined up in San Diego to get their hands on the gadget.
Husband and wife Eli and Natalie Rascon, of Ocean Beach, were among the gamers who waited in line outside a Best Buy store in Mission Valley, which was set to sell a limited number of the consoles at midnight.
Natalie had been waiting for the doors to open since 2 p.m. Eli, in a show of support for his pregnant wife, joined her in line at around 4 p.m.
He said they were both looking forward to checking out the Nintendo Switch’s bells and whistles.
“It’s definitely a lot more exciting than the last two [Nintendo consoles]. You can actually take it with you, like a mobile console,” Eli explained. “And there’s a lot of really, really good games coming out, so that’s exciting.”
Natalie, an avid fan of Nintendo and “The Legend of Zelda,” said she had big plans for how she would use her Nintendo Switch now that she has a little bit of down time.
“Since I’m on maternity leave, I want to play my Nintendo Switch while I have the time before the baby is born and then after the baby is born,” she told NBC 7.
San Diego resident Steven Katherman also waited in line in Mission Valley, enthusiastic about the dual-use of the gaming system.
“You can play it in a lot of different ways. You can take it with you or you can put it on your TV,” Katherman said. “It pretty looks cool; it looks like a lot of fun.”
Local
Up in Murrieta, in Riverside County, Fallbrook resident Mo Abdelrahman eagerly awaited his turn to go inside a Best Buy store to get his hands on the new gaming gadget. To pass the time, he did his homework and played on his phone.
There were two lines at that location: one for customers who had pre-ordered the product and another for those who had not pre-ordered but hoped to get lucky enough to snag a console.
Abdelrahman was in the latter line -- the line of dreamers.
“Hopefully I can get one,” he told NBC 4 Los Angeles. “I’m in the non-pre-order line because people were way fast on it.”
At 11 p.m., Best Buy employees would distribute tickets to those waiting in line to get in. By the time midnight rolled around, Abdelrahman hoped to be the proud new owner of a Nintendo Switch. He said the waiting – and the wondering – was all worth it.
“I love gaming. And I love ‘Legend of Zelda’ – it’s my favorite game, ever. [The Nintendo Switch] is getting a 10 out of 10, so I’m pretty excited,” he added. “If it’s a 10 out of 10, you gotta get it as soon as possible.”
The Nintendo Switch is unique in that in blends the concept of a home gaming console with a handheld console (think Nintendo meets a modern-day Game Boy). The gadget aims to bridge the gap between devoted gamers who like to play on their home set-ups and casual gamers who prefer playing games on the go, on their mobile devices. To draw even more customers, Nintendo has made classic games like “The Legend of Zelda” and “Mario Bros.” compatible with the Switch.
The gaming system is priced at $299. It comes with the Switch console, a dock – which is where the console rests if you’re playing the system while connected to a television – two Joy-Con controllers (left and right), two Joy-Con wrist strap accessories, a Joy-Con grip accessory, a Nintendo Switch AC Adapter and an HDMI cable.
A gamer can lift the Nintendo Switch from the dock to transition it into portable mode, so it can be taken anywhere. The Joy-Con controllers are detachable, giving gamers more options, including playing with one controller in each hand or using the system with two players. If the controllers are slipped onto the grip accessory, they turn into a more traditional video game controller.
To read more details on the Nintendo Switch and what it does, click here.
